Longtime labor organizer candidate Chyanne Chen has won the tight District 11 race on Sunday, with a slim 190-vote lead over moderate candidate Michael Lai.
Chen will succeed termed-out incumbent Ahsha Safaí.
“I’m proud and honored to be Supervisor-elect for District 11,” Chen wrote in a statement. “This was a close election, and I am committed to bringing people together to fight for stronger communities, safe neighborhoods and improved services.”
“We couldn’t do it alone,” Chen told Mission Local. Chen was bolstered by some $700,000 in outside spending by labor unions and an Asian-American political group, dwarfing the money behind Lai. “This is definitely a victory that belongs to the community. It belongs to everybody.”
By 2 p.m. Sunday, Lai conceded on social media, saying he called Chen “to offer her congratulations as the first Asian supervisor for District 11 and offer my help to make our district the best it can be.”
“To the working families, small business owners, young & old — I’m not going anywhere,” Lai said. “We’re just getting started.”
A tight race in District 11, a flip on Nov. 9
The race down the stretch between two Asian immigrants in a District that is 58 percent Asian, was the tightest race among the six contested odd-numbered districts.
Lai led on election night with 5,014 first-choice votes, with Chen trailing by 392 votes. Lai remained in the lead until Nov. 9, when Chen caught up and surpassed Lai by 99 votes after the ranked-choice voting tabulation.
“Later votes are usually more progressive,” Chen said on Nov. 12. “It was shown on Saturday. I hope that it will continue to be coming my way.”
From Nov. 9, Chen held a narrow lead, but Ernest “EJ” Jones’ second-choice votes continued to fuel it — 43 percent of his supporters chose Chen and just 24 percent chose Lai.
Jones, who came in third in first-choice votes, was a former aide to the incumbent Safaí and in the last month leading up to the election, Jones campaigned side-by-side with Chen — door-knocking and having events such as meet-and-greets together.
Of his votes, 2,833 transferred to Chen, while only 1,566 — about a half of what Chen got — went to Lai, according to the latest results from Nov. 17.
Jones was not surprised by the amount of votes that got transferred to Chen. Jones recalled that when he was phone banking, a lot of voters were telling him they either voted him No. 1 and Chen No. 2 — or the other way around.
“From the start, people saw us as similarly aligned in values at our core,” said Jones, who, like Chen, always leaned into his deep roots in the district. “Maybe we don’t agree on every piece of legislation, but we are willing to work together.”
“It helped tremendously,” Chen reflected on the vote transfer. “I want to thank EJ and for the values that he and I share. We are both people who want to represent the community truly.”
Safaí, the incumbent, who endorsed both Chen and Jones and encouraged the alliance, said it was vital to Chen’s victory. “If they don’t form an alliance,” Safaí said, “she doesn’t win.”
However, even though Jones has deep roots in the OMI neighborhood — short for Oceanview, Merced Heights, Ingleside, on the southern border of the city — precinct tabulations show that Lai was quite popular in some of the southern neighborhoods. Chen, on the other hand, has the most support from the northern neighborhoods such as the Excelsior and Mission Terrace.
Two Chinese candidates, two slates
The vote came down to two top vote-getters, Chen and Lai, who are both first-generation Chinese immigrants — one a labor organizer and the other aligned with the change slate trying to unseat progressives.
Chen, 39, arrived in the district when she was 15 after immigrating to the United States with her parents and older brother — she has been living in the district ever since. And Lai, who moved to District 11 only in February 2024, immigrated when he was two-and-a-half years old.
Since he launched his campaign in April, Lai promoted the idea of flipping the progressive Board of Supervisors. That message of change earned him a seat on the Democratic Central Committee, the city’s branch of the Democratic Party, in March.
“The balance of the SF Board of Supes for the next 4 years (moderate change vs. progressive status quo) will hinge on a couple hundred votes in D11,” Lai wrote in a recent social media post on Nov. 11 ahead of the final drops of the results.
Even with a Chen victory, however, the board is poised to lose its progressive majority.
Lai, who billed himself as a moderate candidate, has been supported by deep-pocketed political action group GrowSF and a newly formed group Abundance Network — both gave a total of $272,870 in support of Lai. GrowSF gave Lai’s campaign $110,718 and Abundance Network gave $162,152. The two PACs didn’t spend any money opposing Chen.
For her part, Chen ran a disciplined campaign that emphasized “bringing people together,” she said. She had $399,485 from labor unions, and another $233,857, also from labor, opposing Lai. The unions spent handsomely in the supervisorial races to support progressive candidates.
As one of the two Chinese candidates, Chen was also supported by an Asian-American group called Asian Americans for Representation, which gave $45,091. The group did not support Lai.
If Chen holds onto her declared victory after all 3,300 ballots citywide are counted, she will be joining a reliably more moderate 11-seat board — working with only four other progressive incumbents or projected winners, including Connie Chan in District 1, Myrna Melgar in District 7, Jackie Fielder in District 9, and incumbent Shamman Walton in District 10.
“I think Chyanne had a really good ground campaign,” said John Avalos, who represented the district from 2008 to 2016 and rooted for Chen. Avalos said he went door-knocking with Chen in Mission Terrace, Outer Mission and the hilly parts of the Excelsior before the ballots dropped in early October.
“People who are supporting her campaign are incredibly happy,” said Avalos. “This is the confirmation we are looking for.”
Safaí thinks the biggest factor that set Chen and Lai apart is the fact that Chen is a working mother of two while Lai is a newcomer to the district.
“This neighborhood has one of the highest concentrations of children under the age of 18,” Safaí pointed out. “People want somebody that understands what it means to be a working parent.”
Chen said the incumbent Safaí has “already reached out” to her to offer help with her transition. “I’m going to introduce her to people,” the outgoing incumbent said. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that she’s successful.”
“In any ways she needs help,” Avalos, for his part, said about Chen’s transition. “I will be there to support her.”
Jones, Chen’s ally, said he would “definitely continue a working relationship” with Chen. “I don’t know what capacity that is yet,” Jones said.
“Any time — I’m ready,” Chen said.
About the author
Chyanne Chen claims victory in the tight District 11 race
Longtime labor organizer candidate Chyanne Chen has won the tight District 11 race on Sunday, with a slim 190-vote lead over moderate candidate Michael Lai. Chen will succeed termed-out incumbent Ahsha Safaí. “I’m proud and honored to be Supervisor-elect for District 11,” Chen wrote in a statement. “This was a close election, and I am committed to bringing people together to fight for stronger communities, safe neighborhoods and improved services.” “We couldn’t do it alone,” Chen told Mission Local. Chen was bolstered by some $700,000 in outside spending by labor unions and an Asian-American political group, dwarfing the money behind Lai. “This is definitely a victory that belongs to the community. It belongs to everybody.”By 2 p.m. Sunday, Lai conceded on social media, saying he called Chen “to offer her congratulations as the first Asian supervisor for District 11 and offer my help […]
Russian air strikes shake fragile G20 consensus ahead of summit
By Lisandra Paraguassu and Elizabeth PineauRIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A Russian air strike on Ukraine on Sunday shook a fragile consensus among the Group of 20 major economies drafting their joint statement at an annual leaders summit in Rio de Janeiro, three diplomats familiar with the talks told Reuters.European diplomats are now pushing to revisit previously agreed language on the topic of global conflicts after Russia unleashed its largest air strike on Ukraine in almost three months. The United States responded by lifting prior limits on Ukraine's use of U.S.-made weapons to strike deep into Russia.The escalating conflict could upset a hard-fought consensus that G20 negotiators reached around 5 a.m. on Sunday, after an overnight push to ready the joint statement for final review by leaders arriving in Rio.That preliminary consensus after six days of negotiations included streamlined language […]
King of the streets
King of the streets Source: missionlocal.org
Anduril, defense sector will ‘do well’ in new Trump admin.: CEO
Anduril Industries Co-Founder and CEO Brian Schimpf has a conversation with Yahoo Finance's Josh Lipton about the relationship between escalating geopolitical conflicts around the world and the innovations in US defense technology. "Anduril has done well in [the] prior Trump administration. It's done very well in a Biden administration and I think we'll continue to do well in any future administration," Schimpf explains at the annual Yahoo Finance Invest conference. To see every interview from Yahoo Finance Invest, click here. For the full interview with Brian Schimpf, click here. This post was written by Daniel A. Nelson Source: finance.yahoo.com
Only 3,300 ballots left to be counted citywide
The San Francisco Department of Elections just dropped the results of another 6,281 ballots, bringing the grand total of ballots to 409,747 — 78.46 percent of the electorate.Very few ballots are left to be counted — only around 3,300 of them. That includes — just 500 vote-by-mail ballots and 2,800 provisional ones cast at polling places throughout the city and the City Hall voting center. There are only two remaining contested races: District 11 supervisor and the fourth and last seat on the Board of Education.In District 11, Chyanne Chen is still in the lead with 11,971 votes to her moderate opponent Michael Lai’s 11,781 — just a 190 vote gap. Lai gained two votes from yesterday. Today, 329 ballots in total have been counted in District 11, including 42 vote-by-mail ballots and 287 provisional ones.In addition, there are few outstanding votes remaining citywide […]
North Carolina senator’s office allegedly told woman to ‘move to China’ after she expressed concerns over abortion policy
A North Carolina lawmaker is going viral on TikTok after his office allegedly told a female constituent in an email to “move to China” after she raised concerns about the state’s abortion policy.The constituent, who asked to remain anonymous due to concerns for her safety, told NBC News on Saturday that she sent an email to Republican state Sen. Danny Britt on Nov. 7 to say that her family “desperately wants to expand.”“But because of You, [President-elect Donald] Trump and the republican party and the strict abortion laws in this country we cannot,” she wrote in the email, a copy of which was shared with NBC News. “Thanks for ruining our futures! You all are terrible people.”In response, Britt’s legislative assistant Camille McDougald allegedly told the constituent to consider moving to another country.“Thank you so much for the email. I […]
Related
King of the streets
King of the streets Source: missionlocal.org
Only 3,300 ballots left to be counted citywide
The San Francisco Department of Elections just dropped the results of another 6,281 ballots, bringing the grand total of ballots to 409,747 — 78.46 percent of the electorate.Very few ballots are left to be counted — only around 3,300 of them. That includes — just 500 vote-by-mail ballots and 2,800 provisional ones cast at polling places throughout the city and the City Hall voting center. There are only two remaining contested races: District 11 supervisor and the fourth and last seat on the Board of Education.In District 11, Chyanne Chen is still in the lead with 11,971 votes to her moderate opponent Michael Lai’s 11,781 — just a 190 vote gap. Lai gained two votes from yesterday. Today, 329 ballots in total have been counted in District 11, including 42 vote-by-mail ballots and 287 provisional ones.In addition, there are few outstanding votes remaining citywide […]
Okay
Okay Source: missionlocal.org
Races tighten in District 11, Board of Education
The San Francisco Department of Elections moments ago released the results of another 6,923 ballots, crossing the 400,000-vote plateau. The total of processed ballots is now 403,466: 77.25 percent of the electorate.Perhaps 9,600 ballots remain. Of these, only 1,100 are vote-by-mail ballots, and 8,500 are provisional ballots cast throughout the city and at City Hall on Election Day. Scrutinizing provisional ballots requires additional time, and not all may be accepted. If every provisional ballot is accepted — which is not probable — turnout would peak at 79 percent (late-arriving mail ballots have pushed up the potential vote ceiling). That’s still a significant drop from 2020, when 86.3 percent of registered voters cast a ballot. Let’s dive right into the only two remaining contested races: District 11 supervisor, and the fourth and final open spot on the Board of Education:District 11 hopefuls Chyanne Chen, left, […]
Accused Nima Momeni grows combative
In a contentious second day on the witness stand in his own murder trial, Nima Momeni struggled — or refused — to provide much detail about the April 2023 stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee, or to explain his behavior in the days after the killing. Instead, Momeni was argumentative under cross-examination by prosecutor Omid Talai, who attempted to cast doubt on Momeni’s claim that he acted in self-defense. On Wednesday, Momeni offered jurors his narrative of what happened in the early morning hours of April 4, 2023, when Lee ended up bleeding out in the street with three stab wounds. Momeni testified that Lee had pulled a knife on him after he cracked a “bad joke” about spending more time with his family instead of strip clubs. Lee’s reaction forced Momeni to defend himself. Momeni said that he had no idea […]
Chyanne Chen leading in D11, where most provisional ballots have been counted
The San Francisco Department of Elections just released the results of another 6,106 ballots. The total of processed ballots is now 396,543 — 75.93 percent of the electorate.Perhaps 15,800 ballots remain. Of these, 14,400 are provisional ballots cast throughout the city and at City Hall on Election Day. Scrutinizing provisional ballots requires additional time, and not all may be accepted. Let’s dive right into the only two remaining contested races: District 11 supervisor, and the fourth and last open spot on the Board of Education:In District 11, Chyanne Chen is still leading with 11,931 votes to Michael Lai’s 11,727 — just a 204-vote difference. Lai gained one vote compared to yesterday.“Most of the provisional ballots for D11 are now reviewed and processed and those votes are included in the preliminary results reports,” said Elections Director John Arntz. “The remaining provisional ballots are […]
Be the first to leave a comment